Lucky Guy
by larkgrace
Summary: Percy was taken to the Roman camp at age twenty-two, and his memory was erased. When mysterious Greek warriors appear on their shores, he is entranced by the blond haired girl-but what happens when she's wearing an engagement ring? AU. T for swearing.
1. Royally Screwed

**I seem to be obsessed with writing SoN fics. This is weird.**

**Anyway, this is slightly AU in the sense that everyone is much older. Like, Percy and Annabeth are…meh, I'll say 22 or something like that. But other than that the timeline is the same; Percy vanished six months prior to the beginning of this fic.**

**Oh, and I'm going to *attempt* writing in Percy's POV, first person. Wish me luck.**

**Unfortunately, no, I don't own PJO or anything else that may pop up in here requiring a copyright sign. Read on, brave warriors!**

O-o-O

"…_picking up the pieces, now where to begin? The hardest part of ending is starting again…"_

–Waiting For the End, _Linkin Park_

My first thought of the blond woman wasthe word _beautiful._

At first, I couldn't see anyone on the ship clearly, even when four warriors—at least, that's what I assumed them to be—leaped over the side and landed expertly in the sand, not waiting for a plank or ladder to be lowered.

Lupa had ordered us to line up according to legion, weapons drawn. "Show them the might of Rome!" she had growled at us, not bothering to tell anybody who _them_ might be. I supposed she had known about this visit for quite some time, because she hadn't been at all surprised when a giant Greek warship—don't ask how I knew it was Greek, because I really don't know how I did—anyway, she wasn't surprised or even worried when a giant warship appeared on our horizon. Maybe it was her mystical wolf senses, or maybe she was just keeping stuff from us. She'd ordered Reyna and me to the front, set maybe a yard in front of the front line, like emissaries, even though I thought her choice of representatives was a little strange. I wasn't exactly known for my diplomatic skill, and Reyna was just another Aphrodite—sorry, Venus—girl, even if she _was_ head of her cabin.

Anyway, back to the blond woman. The four warriors jumped ship and lingered in the shadows for a moment, heads bent together like they were discussing something. Two of them were obviously girls, one taller than the other, and it seemed to me like the tall girl was in charge. One of the others—a guy who was pretty muscular—put a hand on her arm, and the woman rubbed her forehead like she'd had a long day and wanted to go to bed. Then she raised her head, turned, and led the others into the sunlight.

I was dazzled. The tall woman's hair was honey blond, and curled around her face, falling over her shoulders in a wild tangle, like she hadn't brushed it in a few days. Her eyes were gray, swirling like storm clouds, hypnotic. She was staring at me, sparing one glance for Reyna and then raking her gaze over my face, like she was trying to memorize my features. I registered the other three behind her; noticing the muscular man, also a blond, and the girl who looked like a Cherokee Barbie, along with the Latino boy whose hands couldn't stay still. But the beautiful blond woman was sizing me up, like she was preparing to take me down in battle, but something in her expression was soft. If I didn't know better, I would think we had once been friends. Maybe we had been; it wasn't like I remembered anything.

Then I noticed her clothes. She was wearing an orange shirt, exactly like the one I had been wearing when I arrived here. She had a necklace, too, like the one I kept in my pocket at all times, though she had more beads than I did. All of them were dressed like her, except for the blond boy—he was wearing a purple shirt like me and everyone around me, which was causing quite a buzz, but I couldn't look away from the woman. She was too beautiful, and strangely familiar—I felt like I _knew_ her, or at the very least I wanted to know her. And then she reached up to brush a strand of hair out of her face, and I saw it.

There, on her left hand. A ring.

This woman was _engaged._

Gods _damn_ it.

I felt like my heart had fallen into my stomach, which made no sense at all; I didn't even know this woman. Still, something about that ring made me feel like I had been punched in the gut.

My little internal pity party was brought to a screeching halt when a horse leaped over the side and pounded into the sand, nodding at Lupa, who had appeared at my side at some point. Then I realized that the horse was a _man_ from the waist up. He was a centaur.

The centaur trotted to the blond woman's side and placed a hand on her shoulder, which made her tear her gaze from me and look at him. He said in a slow, reassuring voice, "My dear, I think you should go with Percy and…" he looked at Reyna questioningly.

"Reyna," the blond dude said, nodding at her. There was a general murmur of shock, and somewhere in the voices I heard the name _Jason._ So this was the infamous missing camper.

"Reyna," the centaur repeated. "Go with Percy and Reyna, and try to explain the…situation."

She nodded, and I turned my attention to Lupa, who gestured with her paw to a dirt path leading into the woods. Reyna and I nodded in understanding, then gestured to the little group across from us. "Follow me," I commanded, and saw a strange expression flit across the woman's face—hurt? In any case, it was gone in less than a second. "We're going for a little hike," I said, then took off running down the path.

It wasn't the ideal hiking trail. There were invisible twists and turns, roots hiding under a blanket of leaves, dips and low hanging branches. I was running it at a dead sprint, leaving Reyna to fend for herself as she fell behind. The blond woman was right behind me, though, pounding along and almost overtaking me. Her breathing wasn't even heavy.

After maybe ten minutes of running at top speed, the trail ended suddenly at the base of a cliff. I turned around and saw the woman behind me, breathing slow and deep, eying the cliff with dull interest. There was sweat on her brow and her cheeks were flushed, but she didn't seem too exhausted. Her legs weren't even shaking. That was when I noticed that her legs were long and tan, built like a runner. She looked very athletic, which wasn't that uncommon with demigods.

It sort of dawned on me that we were alone in the middle of nowhere. Like, _alone,_ because we'd left the others in the dust. I wasn't worried because Reyna knew the way, but I was starting to feel seriously awkward. I mean, what do you say when you're alone in the middle of the woods with an engaged woman you don't know but feel like you might really like?

So you see my situation.

The woman walked past me and put her hands on the rock, pulling herself up. "What are you doing?" I asked.

She turned around and smiled, just a little, and I could feel my heart do a little tap-dance. How pathetic was I? Then she said, "I'm assuming that lovely little jog was _not_ the hike you were talking about, and there's nowhere to go but up, so…" She continued climbing. I sighed and started after her, even though I sort of wished she would keep talking; her voice was pleasant despite the glares she constantly seemed to be giving everyone.

The woman was a fast climber. She was already halfway up the cliff, with me several feet behind, when I heard footsteps below us and Reyna saying, "There's a little place at the top—hey, where'd they go?"

"I think they started up without us."

"Thanks for waiting, Percy!"

"No problem, Reyna," I yelled down.

At this point, the woman had already pulled herself over the ledge and I was right behind her, digging my feet into the rock and pulling on the ground until I scrambled onto a little cliff top oasis. There was a great view of the ocean, with trees on all sides and a few plastic lawn chairs that I guess some Hermes (Mercury, whatever) kids had hauled up here at some point. Normally I would have gone and checked out the view, but my usual spot was taken by the blond woman. The sun was shining through her hair, and…

I _really_ needed to stop doing that.

There was a grunt and a few Latin swear words from just below the ledge, and the blond girl turned back and hauled Jason up, leaving him to catch his breath while she assisted the dark-haired Barbie girl and the Latino boy. Jason leaned over the side and yelled, "You coming, Rey?"

"Hey, _you_ try climbing a cliff in sandals!"

I couldn't help but laugh; climbing was about the only thing Reyna _couldn't _do in sandals. She ran, fought, and pretty much did everything in those strappy little nightmares of a shoe.

Finally she made it up and rubbed her toes, which had started bleeding at some point during the climb, and moved to stand by me. Jason got to his feet and put his hand on the blond woman's shoulder, which made my stomach clench, and he said, "We should probably explain everything to Percy and Reyna."

She nodded and turned around, and I think I might have choked a little because I was a pathetic lovesick puppy. Then she gestured at Jason, saying, "Introductions? You start."

He nodded and said, "I'm Jason Grace, son of—"

"Jupiter," Reyna finished. "Long time no see."

The Barbie girl took Jason's hand, which made me feel slightly better, and said, "Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

"Leo Valdez," the Latino dude said, "son of Hephaestus."

"And I'm Annabeth Chase," the blond woman said, and I almost missed the rest of her sentence because _I knew that name. _It was the one name I knew when I got here, and I had been a little obsessed with finding out who Annabeth was, because I just _knew_ I had to find her. And then, of course, she finished with "daughter of Athena."

Well, I was royally screwed. I was crushing—_hard—_on a girl who was engaged and _beyond_ out of my league. Oh, not to mention she was the daughter of my dad's worst enemy.

As I said, royally screwed.

My expression at the moment must have been something, because Annabeth scrunched her eyebrows together—gods, she looked cute when she did that—and said, "Are you alright?"

No. Not at all. But I managed to swallow the baseball-sized lump in my throat and say, "I'm Percy—"

"We know who you are," Annabeth said.

"You do?"

"Of course. That's why we're here."

"I'm lost."

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, like I was giving her a headache. Was I really that bad?

…probably.

So I listened as Annabeth and her friends explained the whole mess with Hera and the giants and how Jason and I had traded places, and how Jason had eventually regained his memory—obviously, I wasn't so lucky. They told me that I was a Greek, and that I belonged with them, which kind of made my heart flip when Annabeth said it.

Why did Aphrodite hate me so much?

I nodded when they finished their story, saying, "So…you need our help."

Annabeth nodded.

"We're in."

Reyna gave me a look. "Percy, we need to talk to Lupa first."

"That's what Chiron is doing right now," Annabeth said. "And if Lupa has a speck of sense, she'll agree with us."

"We'll see about that," Reyna grumbled. "Let's go."

After another horrifying climb and a sweaty run, we got back to the forum, where the Greeks had filed off the ship and were currently having a silent stand-off with the Romans. I personally thought the effect when all heads turned to us was kind of cool, but Piper blushed and hid behind Jason. A daughter of Aphrodite who didn't want to be looked at? News to me.

"We're in, if that's okay with Lupa," I announced. All eyes immediately went to the she-wolf, who glared at Chiron and nodded slowly.

"That's that, then," I said, and when nobody moved I continued, "Run along. No need to be giving each other death glares."

The group of demigods broke up, with the Romans wandering off to various parts of the camp and the Greeks milling around on the beach, both groups muttering darkly. Reyna grabbed Piper's hand and pulled her away, saying, "You _have_ to tell me what the Venus cabin is like at your camp!" Jason trailed after them, and Leo wandered over to a dark-haired Greek girl and threw an arm around her shoulders.

Annabeth started walking, and I kept pace with her for lack of anything better to do. She seemed slightly annoyed by this but didn't bother to say anything. Finally I said, "So…what's camp like?"

"Fine," she said with a little shrug. "Better than this place."

Well, _that_ cleared a lot up.

"Am I annoying you?" I asked her without thinking.

She stopped and looked at me like I had grown a third arm. "Annoying me?"

"Well, you don't really seem like you want to have a friendly chat…"

"You _always_ annoy me, Percy. Mildly. I just…have a lot on my mind," she sighed, rubbing her temples. It was that same expression as before, like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in ages. Maybe she'd been having nightmares. For some reason, it made me mad, that there was something plaguing her I couldn't fight.

Then Annabeth stiffened, and she said, "Hi, Malcolm," even as another blond guy materialized at her shoulder. Before she even turned around to face him, her expression was transformed back into an emotionless mask. Malcolm looked at me sideways before leading Annabeth toward Chiron the centaur, talking in her ear. She glanced back and flashed a half smile in my general direction—at least, I _think_ it was my direction, but it was hard to tell since she was running across the beach to a command tent.

Reyna appeared at my shoulder, glancing between me and Annabeth's form, which was ducking into the tent at the other end of the beach. Then she planted herself in front of me and said, "You are one lovesick puppy."

"I know. Aren't you supposed to be bothering Piper?"

"I was going to, but I got the sense she just wanted to make out with Jason."

"She doesn't strike me as much of the 'making-out' type."

"And you don't strike me as a daughter of the love goddess."

I flicked her on the head, a little harder than intended, because in return she kicked me in the shin.

She shook her head and said, "I don't get it, Perce. You could have _any_ girl at this camp—I can tell you firsthand that a good chunk of them are drooling over you—and you pick _her._ Do you enjoy punishing yourself?"

"You know me."

"I know you're absolutely hopeless."

I sighed. "Maybe you're right."

*#*#*

"Good morning, sleepy head," Jason smirked at me as I sank onto my bench in the dining pavilion. Lupa had decided that, since we were essentially the emissaries for our camps, we should sit together for meals; I suspected it had more to do with the fact that all the tables were overflowing with demigods. So Reyna, Jason, Piper, Leo, and Annabeth were sharing a table with me.

"Shut up," I muttered, attempting to murder my pancakes with a fork. I knew my appearance was probably tease-worthy, with my amazing bed-head and wrinkled clothes, but I'd overslept.

Apparently I wasn't the only one having a bad morning. Annabeth was sitting directly across from me, with her head on her arms and her half-eaten breakfast shoved to the side. She was wearing a hoodie, with the hood flipped up, and if I couldn't see her breathing I would've thought she was dead.

"Bad night?" I asked her, and she groaned and looked up. That was when I noticed we had the same clothes: gray hoodie, green T-shirt. She growled something under her breath and stomped away.

"What did you do, stab her with a butter knife?" Reyna asked as she fell onto the seat next to Piper. "She's pissed."

"I…don't know," I said, and got up to follow Annabeth.

I found her in the Legion's training hall, but she wasn't fighting. I thought she was taking a nap, at first, but then I saw that she was laughing and squirming, screaming, "Stop! Stop it!"

One of the Minerva girls—the youngest, who was only three—was sitting on Annabeth's stomach, tickling her into submission with her stubby little fingers. The girl—I thought her name was Maggie—was shrieking just as loudly as Annabeth, her face alight with pleasure as Annabeth picked her up and carried her to the stands. Maggie beamed at her older sister and held up a book—I couldn't see the title from here, but it was a pretty darn big book—and said, "Will you read to me, Annie?"

"I'm dyslexic," Annabeth reminded her. "I can't read very well."

"Please?"

"No. And I think _you_ need to go get some breakfast; that stomach of yours is growling louder than the monsters!" She finished with tickling Maggie, who ran screaming from the hall.

Annabeth smiled and returned to the stands, where she picked up a knife that was vaguely familiar and whirled to gut the nearest dummy before she spotted me.

"Hi," I said, and she scowled and began hacking a training dummy to bits.

"Lovely to see you too. How's your morning been? Mine's great, thanks for asking," I continued, striding to the stands and taking a seat, and I could swear I saw the corner of her mouth twitch.

"You're annoying me again," she said, and she walked over and sat beside me.

"I thought I always annoy you. What's so different this time?"

"I'm not used to it. You haven't annoyed me much the past few days."

"Because you won't talk to me."

"Right. Sorry about that," she said, grimacing and rubbing her forehead, like she had a headache again. "It's a bit complicated."

"Care to explain?"

"Not really."

Okay, so I'd asked for that one. I shifted sideways so that I was facing her, still being careful not to touch her. As kick-ass as she seemed to be (and probably was), she still seemed sort of fragile, or maybe it was just the fact of my own invulnerability that made her seem that way.

Annabeth reclined on the risers behind her and crossed her arms, which was when I noticed she'd taken off her jacket, even though it was pretty chilly for high summer. There was a light sheen of sweat on her skin, and I knew from experience that the only thing worse than going jacketless on a chilly day was being sweaty on a chilly day, sans jacket. "You cold?" I asked her, and she shook her head even though her arms were covered in goose bumps.

"Do you remember anything?" she asked me suddenly. "Anything at all?"

"No," I said slowly, and she sighed and closed her eyes.

I was suddenly very, _very_ aware of the fact that her arm was about an inch and a half from my hand, and a stray lock of hair had blown across her face, and I needed to snap out of it before I gave in to the temptation that was nagging me to tuck it behind her ear.

_Damn it, you idiot, she's engaged. Stop. _

But the temptation was still there, so I decided my brain needed a more forceful reminder. Which was why my big mouth decided to blurt, "So, who's the lucky guy?"

"What?" She opened her eyes and sat up.

"Your ring. I'm assuming it's not just for show," I clarified, nodding to her hand, which was currently clenched into a fist.

"It's not important," she said, and I was getting the early _I don't want to talk about this_ feel, which of course I had to ignore.

"Come on, tell me," I pleaded.

"It's really not important."

I started guessing, assuming that her fiancée was here and she would give some signal if I got it right. "Leo?"

"He has a girlfriend. Ashley, remember?"

"Right." I didn't tell her that I was basically listing off any of the Greek guys that popped into my head. "Jason?"

"Do you think Piper would let me live if that was the case?"

"Malcolm?"

I thought she might puke. "Malcolm is my _brother."_

I blushed. "Okay, forget I ever said that. Connor?"

She glared at me with irritation and said, "No."

"At least give me a hint."

She jumped to her feet, and for a second I thought she might stab me, because her expression was murderous—at least, it was before tears started running down her cheeks. "I told you to _leave it alone,"_ she hissed. "It's not like it matters anymore." She started wrestling the ring off her finger.

"Annabeth—"

"Don't!" she yelled, her whole body trembling. "Don't bother. Just leave me alone. And since you really wanted to know—" she paused and tossed the ring in my lap as she backed away, "_you_ were the lucky guy, Percy. It was always you." She turned and stomped out of the hall, straight past Jason and Piper, leaving me with a ring in my lap and a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach.

_Way to fuck that up, Percy._

Jason stared at me questioningly as I picked up the ring and held it in my palm, feeling the blood drain from my face. _It was always you._ Me.

Gods, I had screwed that up. Big time.

Jason walked over to me, saying, "What happened? Did you and Annabeth fight?" Then he spotted my hands, his eyes grew roughly to the size of a dinner plate, and he yelled, "Annabeth!" before chasing after her, grabbing Piper's hand as he dashed away.

O-o-O

**So I decided I'll have to break this up, because it is turning out to be a **_**lot**_** longer than I thought. Oh well.**

**And I would've had this up a lot earlier, but my computer crashed :( So I just got it fixed today, and decided to let my lovely fans know that I'm not dead.**

**Review? For the children…**


	2. All's Fair

**I'm back. Just out of curiosity, how many people caught the Maggie/Minerva reference last chapter? ;) Harry Potter geeks will rule the world one day!**

**And…no. Still don't own anything.**

O-o-O 

"…_I can't seem to find myself again, my walls are closing in…"_

-Crawling, _Linkin Park_

Reyna was the first one to find me, face down on my bunk, contemplating how many people would cry if I died of pure self-hatred. I couldn't think of that many. Annabeth certainly wouldn't, not anymore.

_Screw my life._

"Taking a nap, Perce?" Reyna said, bouncing into my cabin and sitting on my bed, poking me in the ribs to make sure I was still alive.

"Not in the mood, Reyna."

"Whatever. I didn't come here just to bug you. I was asking if you'd heard the news."

"News?" I asked dully, still not looking up.

"Apparently Annabeth and her nameless fiancée got into a huge fight; she's not wearing her ring. She hasn't talked to anyone since this morning except for Jason and Piper."

"Reyna, now isn't a great time—"

"I just don't know who could do that to her!" Reyna continued. "I mean, whoever the guy was, he must have been a complete asshole to—"

I sat up, glaring at Reyna, even though I had to admit she was right. _Asshole _probably wasn't a strong enough word to describe what I was.

"What?" she said, shrinking back a little. "Did you know the guy?"

The ring I'd been holding in my fist hit the floor with a delicate _ping._

I had to make sure Reyna wasn't choking, because her lack of word-spew scared me. She stared at the ring for a solid three minutes—and yes, I was counting, only because I wanted to see how long I would last before she strangled me. Finally she looked at me and stated, "Damn, you screwed up."

Good old Reyna. Looked like I would live another day. She knew me well enough to see just how much I hated myself at the moment, so she said, "It's not your fault."

"Not my fault?" I exclaimed, "I was going to _marry_ her, Reyna. I was going to marry her and I couldn't even remember who she was."

"Were you not listening to your lover when she told you about the goddess who decided to mess your head up? I mean, more messed up than usual."

"This is making me feel so much better."

"I'm not here to fix your guilt, stupid."

"Just to spread gossip."

"Well…yeah, but now I'm here to tell you to _get your miserable ass out of bed and go apologize to your girlfriend._ Now, would be good. I don't like lover quarrels."

"What am I supposed to say? _Oh, hi, Annabeth, I know you probably want to stab me, but would you mind waiting a minute so I can say sorry for forgetting every detail about you?_ Sure. That will solve everything."

"It's worth a try. Get out there."

"Going," I said, and scooped the ring off the floor before going to get myself killed, either by Annabeth or her friends—whoever got to me first, I supposed.

I found her sitting on the beach with Jason and Piper, having a competition to see who could throw pebbles farthest out into the water. Jason was winning, apparently, because the girls had started flicking rocks at him. When I got closer, Piper twisted around to see who was coming, and she looked a little anxious when she looked back at Annabeth. Was she that mad?

I got my answer when she sighed and, without turning around, said, "Don't take this the wrong way, Percy, but fuck off."

She was mad, but not murderous. A step up for sure. So I sat down beside her, however suicidal that was, and said, "You know I'm more stubborn that that."

"Of course you are." She crossed her legs and threw another rock into the ocean, although I got the feeling she wanted to throw it at something—or someone—else.

"Is that all you're going to say?"

"Do you want to hear what I'm really thinking right now?"

She made a good point, but I said, "Sure."

"Well, I'm wondering how you made it across camp with all your limbs attached, because apparently you pissed off a lot of Aphrodite girls."

"They didn't know it was me."

"I'm thinking that you obviously don't know the meaning of _leave me alone."_

"Obviously."

"And I'm wondering what you're doing here."

"That one's a little harder."

Cue awkward silence.

She turned around to face me and said, "You can try to explain."

I shook my head and said, "I'm sorry. What else do you want me to say?"

"I don't really know."

"Are you going to forgive me?"

"I don't know that either." She picked up a handful of sand and let it run through her fingers.

"Well, I don't know what to say without you getting even angrier at me."

She shook her head and sighed yet again. Piper and Jason, who must have been feeling pretty awkward at the moment, shifted in the sand and glanced between Annabeth and I like we were going to start ripping each other apart.

"Do you really not remember anything?"

"I wish I could—really, I do—but I can't."

She nodded and brushed sand off her jeans. "I don't have anything to blame you for then, do I?"

"You still have every right to blame me for being an asshat."

"Can't argue with you there." But she was smiling.

"Hey," I said, and she looked at me with that half-smile that let me know I was forgiven. I suppose my natural charm made it hard to stay mad at me. (I hope you caught the sarcasm there, or else you're even more obtuse than me, and I pride myself on my record.) So I dug around in my pocket for a minute—amazing how things seemed to get lost in there—and pulled the ring out, holding it up so Annabeth could see it. She furrowed her eyebrows and bit her lip, which admittedly made her look very cute.

"Keep it," I said. "I don't remember anything, but I _do_ trust you, and…" I trailed off since we were getting into an awkward admission zone. She held out her hand, and I pressed the ring into her palm, and—

Suddenly there was a buzzing in the back of my skull, almost painful, and I felt like there was an empty space in my head that was being filled with trickling water and—

"Wise Girl," I said, more to myself than anything else, and that was out of shock. "I used to call you Wise Girl."

"What?" she demanded.

"Don't tell me I'm wrong."

"I'm not—how did you remember that?"

"I don't know, I just…"

"Jason," she called, reminding me that we had an audience, "come here."

He scrambled his way over the sand and stopped just behind me—if he was still scared to be in arms reach of Annabeth, I hated to think what she'd been like an hour ago—before saying, "What do you need?"

"Just touch Percy's arm," she said in a distracted voice.

"Come again?"

"Do it!"

"Okay, okay," he said, and put a hand on my arm, and…

Nothing.

"That went well," I said drily, but I could see the gears in Annabeth's head working furiously. She gestured to Piper and said, "You try."

Piper put her hand where Jason's had been, and the trickle started again. "The magic makeup," I said. "Leo set your snowboarding jacket on fire and you put a curse on him—he was wearing eyeliner and lip gloss for two weeks!"

Annabeth grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet, and I blurted, "The Underworld…you got past Cerberus with a red rubber ball."

"Come on, Seaweed Brain," she ordered, running up the beach and back to the forum. I had to sprint to keep up with her; that woman could have given the Hermes kids a run for their money.

She skidded to a stop in front of a Greek boy—I think it was Connor Stoll—and said, "Touch Percy."

He looked at her sideways and said, "Pardon me, Owl Head?"

"You heard me."

Connor poked my arm, and I blurted, "The golden mango—those Aphrodite girls almost _killed_ you!"

He blinked, then looked at Annabeth and said, "Okay, show me the cue cards. He can't remember that."

"But he does!" she yelled, beaming at both of us as she shouted, "I knew it!"

"Knew _what?"_ Connor and I demanded at the same time.

"Physical contact! That's the key—you need to touch people who can be associated with your memories!"

"You're a genius," I told her.

"I know!" she said, and hugged the air right out of my lungs, and the little trickle of memory turned into a flood. I put a hand on my head and said, "Whoa."

"Some memories, huh?" Connor said with a grin and a little suggestive smirk.

"Too many. My head feels like it's going to explode," I said, rubbing my forehead. It felt like someone had turned my skull into a pressure cooker.

Annabeth let go of me and backed away. "Sorry."

"I never said I minded. My head's been feeling like that a lot lately, trying to keep up with you and your crazy mood swings." She stuck her tongue out at me but grabbed my hand.

Connor wrinkled his nose and announced, "You two are disgusting. I'm leaving."

"Good riddance!" I yelled as he left, which earned me a middle finger salute. How charming.

"It's good to have you back," Annabeth said, and hugged me again.

"It's good to be back."

*#*#*

"Morning," I said as Annabeth sat down with her breakfast.

"Ugh," she muttered, and put her head down on the table.

"Bad night?"

"No sleep." She lifted her head and said, "I guess you forgot I have insomnia."

"Really?"

"Really _bad._ I can never sleep unless I take medicine. Which I left in New York."

"So that's how you get so much work done," I teased her.

Leo sat down at the table and dropped something down the back of Annabeth's shirt, which made her shriek and jump.

"Ice cube," he said when I looked at him funny. "It's the only way to wake her up."

We high fived while Annabeth muttered, "Fuck you both," and lay her head back down.

"Hey," Piper said with a massive yawn as she fell onto the bench next to Annabeth. "What's up with her?"

"Leo dropped an ice cube down her shirt," I said, and she nodded like this was normal.

I thought I heard Annabeth grumble "Asshole" under her breath. Leo found this extremely funny.

Jason joined us with a nod and a quick kiss for Piper, which made her blush. "Annabeth forget to take her meds again?" he asked as he took a bite of waffle.

Annabeth lifted her head again and said, "Annabeth doesn't _have_ her meds."

"Annabeth is talking about herself in the third person," I noticed. She rolled her eyes and ate a spoonful of cereal.

Reyna materialized behind me with a chipper, "Morning! Why are you all so gloomy?"

"Because it's morning, stupid," Annabeth and I said in unison. Reyna stuck her tongue out at me while Jason and Piper laughed.

"You all suck," Reyna said.

"Morning people suck!" Leo fired back.

Annabeth rubbed her head and looked at me pleadingly, like, _Get me out of here._ I kicked her under the table and said, "So, Wise Girl, you want to go get your butt kicked in the training hall?"

She smiled. "I was just about to ask you the same thing, Seaweed Brain." She got up from the table and led me to the training hall. When I got there, she already had her knife out, tapping it against her leg and grinning. She didn't look tired anymore, probably a side effect of the adrenaline that always came with a fight. I drew my own weapon, and before I could even begin to taunt her, she attacked me.

I was used to fighting with the Roman kids here, and had even sparred with a few Greeks over the past few days, but none of them were a match for me; I would toy with them all for a bit and then pound them into the dirt. Annabeth was different. She was just so damn _fast;_ I had to be on my guard or the next thing I knew she'd be behind me. It seemed like I could barely block one strike before she was in the middle of the next one, and she could predict my own attacks too easily; I was now purely on defense. She wasn't worried about playing by the rules, either—if I could still bruise my shins would be black and blue from all her kicking, and I was pretty sure she would've made a Picasso painting on my chest from all her vicious punches. In my peripheral vision, I saw a group of people who I assumed to be our breakfast buddies stand in the doorway and start cheering.

Annabeth kicked me in the chest and fell hard, off balance, landing on the sandy floor with a thud and a little gasp of pain. She curled up and clutched her foot, grimacing; she looked like she was in serious agony. "Damn it," she moaned, "forgot I can't do that anymore."

"Are you okay?" I bent over, meaning to make sure her foot wasn't broken, and before I knew what was happening she had grabbed my shirtfront and pulled me to the floor, planting her knees on my chest and sticking her knife under my chin.

"No fair! You cheated!" I protested, swatting the knife away, but the damage was done. I could hear Piper and Leo laughing in the background, and Jason said, "Come on. Even _I _saw that one coming."

"All's fair in love and war," she quipped, smirking.

You know how people always say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall? They left out the part about wrestling their way back to an extremely underhanded victory. I threw Annabeth off and soon had her pinned under my considerably larger mass, with Riptide's point resting gently on her neck.

"You bastard, I beat you!" she laughed, shoving my weapon away.

"All's fair," I reminded her.

"Loser."

I stood up and reached down, pulling her to her feet. This time she accepted like a good sport, straightening her clothes and trying to maintain whatever shreds of dignity she had at the moment, since I got the feeling she was used to beating me.

"You want to patch that up?" I asked her, touching a long gash on her forearm that I vaguely remembered giving her at some point and which was now causing blood to trickle over her fingertips. She examined it dully, like she was used to having worse, which she probably was.

She sighed and gave me a wry smile, like she found something amusing and knew I wouldn't get it. "I'll give those Romans one thing; they can teach people to fight well." Then she flicked some blood off her hand and kissed me.

She.

Kissed.

Me.

If being tackle-hugged broke the memory dam, this may have well blown it up with C-4.

"_You know, I've been thinking of making some changes to the Athena cabin," Annabeth said as we walked across the gravel. "Not that I'll be here much longer," she added, twirling the ring on her finger._

"_Is that ever a great idea," I teased her. "I've always thought the place was a bore—definitely needs some sprucing up."_

_She glared at me half-heartedly, the effect of which was completely ruined by the accompanying grin. "You keep that up, Seaweed Brain, and you can kiss any redemption you might've gotten with my mother goodbye."_

"_I've got a better idea, Wise Girl," I said while I put my finger under her chin. "Why don't I just kiss _you_ good night instead?"_

"_Well, aren't you slick?" she said as she stood on tiptoe to meet me._

She wrapped her good arm around my neck.

"_Wow. My last high school track meet ever." She wrestled her hair back into a ponytail, with some difficulty after spending the last three hours on the windy football field. "Time for the mile in Hades." _

"_Kick Central's ass for me? They beat us at swim finals."_

"_Of course." She smiled and jogged to the starting line—the curvy-looking one that was used in all the distance races; I could never remember what it was called. The starting gun went off, and the competitors loped off around the corner, barely running._

_What seemed like ages later but was really only about five minutes, Annabeth reached the last hundred meters before the finish line. She hit the gas and sprinted down the straightaway, her curly hair whipping across her red face. Her feet barely touched the ground; she was flying rather than running. She stumbled over the finish and collapsed on the track, looking like she might puke. It wouldn't have been the first time, but she shakily got to her feet and walked next to me, out of the way of the runners behind her._

"_I am never doing another mile run as long as I live," she vowed, which was what she said at every meet. I just rolled my eyes and pushed her hair off her forehead. She grabbed my hand and kissed my cheek, leaning against me while she caught her breath._

_The best part? She'd lapped the bastards from Central._

I wrapped my arms around her torso and ignored the whistles coming from our friends, who really needed to butt out.

"_I am never, ever going to make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain. Get used to it."_

Annabeth winced and pulled her arm back, grimacing at the cut, which had now stained her sleeve red. "I really should get this fixed."

"Come on," I said.

She wrapped her good hand around mine as we left the hall.

O-o-O

**Phew. That took ages.**

**And, as another disclaimer, I kindasorta stole the "goodnight kiss" scene from a drawing on deviantArt, "good night kiss" by *burdge-bug. She has tons of amazing fanart :)**

**And I'm still not done. Keep waiting for another update.**

**Review?**


End file.
